Warning: Character death. This chapter is extremely sad and potentially triggering. I'm so sorry but I had to do it for future chapters. Forgive me. Chapter 8 will take place in middle school.


"How far are we now?" Blaine asked his mommy eagerly as they were driving to Kurt's house.

"Two hours," his mommy replied, glancing in the rear view mirror with a solemn expression.

Blaine fell back against the seat feeling his heart sink. "We are going to be late," he whispered despairingly, staring at the cupcakes in the seat next to him, eyes full of anguish. There was no way the cupcakes would be tasty by the time they got to the graduation party.

"I'm kidding, B. Kurt lives ten minutes away, like he always has." She chuckled and turned on the radio.

"-and this afternoon calls for heavy rain showers until late tonight! I hope everyone in Lima wore their rainboots today."

Blaine looked out the window, frowning. The sky didn't look as happy as he was about today.


"Mom, I swear I'm not as bad as I look. I can go to the party," Sebastian begged, eyes red rimmed and his face a sickly pale.

"Mrs. Smythe, he has high fever and cough whole night. He will make Kaine and Blurt sick if he go to party," Miss Yoo-Moh warned, trying in vain to get Sebastian back into bed.

Lydia looked at Sebastian with a tiny frown. "You don't look so good, dear."

"I feel fine, I'm just… I'm just having an off day," Sebastian insisted, shooting Miss Yoo-Moh a death glare. Worst nanny ever. Didn't she know what day it was? It was the day of the graduation party! He had to go! He was a very important guest! A little bit of coughing and sniffling was no excuse.

"You will puke on cake and ruin party!" Miss Yoo-Moh chastised, waggling a finger at him. Sebastian grimaced. Cake sounded awful. He clapped a hand over his mouth feeling his stomach churn horribly.


"Hey Miss Hummel! I brought cupcakes!" Blaine said, pleased that he had something to bring to the party. "Where's Kurt?"

Miss Hummel took the cupcakes from Blaine's outstretched hands smiling. "Thanks for the cupcakes Mrs. Anderson. And you too, Blaine," she added patting his head.

"Kurt is upstairs getting ready still. I swear that boy takes longer to get dressed than most teenage girls." She shook her head fondly as Blaine's mom laughed.

Blaine hastily hugged his mom goodbye and then ran into the house.

"Kurt I am here for the party and I brought cupcakes!" he yelled as he clambered up the stairs.

He pulled open the door to Kurt's bedroom to find Kurt lying on the floor over a pile of clothes, wearing only Spiderman underwear, his expression blank. Blaine gasped.

"Kurt! What's wrong?" Blaine asked, kneeling beside him to peer at his face worriedly.

Kurt turned his head, looking unfazed that Blaine was seeing him half naked and in despair.

"I have nothing to wear," he said with the grief of a man who has had great suffering.


Sebastian looked at himself in the mirror, willing himself to get better before the party was over.

"I am going to that party," he told his reflection crossly. "I have been waiting a whole 3 weeks for this. Also Blaine is there and I am not. Which means today Blaine is being a better friend than me and I can't have that. I just can't."

He picked up his toothbrush and squirted a huge clump of toothpaste on it.

"Toothpaste kills bacteria," he said to his reflection matter-of-factly. "I'm pretty sure it kills the bacteria that made me sick too. I will kill the sick right out of me."

And so he set to work. He brushed his teeth for a whole two minutes (he watched the clock) and then took off his shirt and rubbed toothpaste all over his throat and chest and tummy because he was pretty sure the bacteria was hiding there the hardest.

Soon the bottle was empty and he couldn't think of anything else to do so he sat on the toilet seat and watched the clock. Five minutes and the sick bacteria would be dead. He just knew it.


It took some pretty hard work, but Blaine finally convinced Kurt to wear a baby blue button down shirt and a checkered tie.

"You look real handsome!" Blaine insisted as Kurt stared at his reflection, considering.

"On a scale of one to fourteen, how handsome?" Kurt asked grinning.

"Infinity. Plus six." Blaine said seriously.

Kurt laughed. "Wow that's a whole lotta handsome."

"I'll say."

Blaine wanted to add that Kurt was the handsomest boy he ever knew but Kurt's daddy started calling them downstairs.

"What is it?" Kurt called, looking at his reflection from a different angle.

"Please come down here for a sec, I'm going to run out to the grocery store!"

Kurt went downstairs with a sigh, Blaine following close behind him.

"Is there anything you need from the store, bud?" Kurt's daddy asked as he sat on the couch to slip on his shoes.

"Oh Burt sweetheart, let me go get it. I can't believe I forgot to buy drinks. I feel so silly," she muttered as she went to get her keys from the kitchen counter.

"Honey you've done enough already. You've been up all day preparing this thing, you're making me look bad."

"Oh I'll be back in fifteen minutes," she insisted. "Besides, every time you go to the store you try and sneak some sweets in the house that you don't need." She kissed his forehead as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking guilty.

"Kurt baby, do you and Blaine need anything?"

"Please get orange soda!" Kurt said, running forward to hug her leg.

"I don't know," she said, looking like she was thinking really hard about it. Kurt's daddy chuckled.

"What if I said I love you?" Kurt tried, staring up at her innocently.

"Orange soda sure does have a lot of sugar," she said, scratching her chin.

"What if I said you're the best best mommy in the whole wide universe?" Kurt asked, sticking his bottom lip out.

"The best best mommy? Okay, okay you can have orange soda." He clapped his hands happily and she leaned down to kiss his forehead too. "Love you baby doll. And I love you, honey!" she called to Kurt's daddy as she opened the door to leave.

"I'll be back in a little bit!"


Sebastian washed off the toothpaste, trying hard not to cry. He would just throw his own party when he felt better. It's not like Kurt would forget about him just because he couldn't make it. Besides, it was raining. Really hard too. How good could a party be if it was raining this hard anyway?

He slipped into bed and turned on his TV with a remote, flipping through the channels. It changed to the boring old News and even though he kept clicking, it stayed on that channel. Stupid batteries. Everything just had to suck more than usual today, didn't it?

"-flash flood warnings throughout Ohio. We must advise you to stay indoors until further notice. Lima hasn't seen this much rain since 1987-"

Sebastian yawned and then folded his arms over his chest moodily. Who cared about the weather? Blah, blah, blah. And the news lady looked really dumb with her big beehive hairdo. What whacko allowed her on TV looking like that?

"-we have received numerous reports of a collision along the highway. Ted, can you give us any information on that?"

The screen jumped over to where a man was standing outside in a raincoat, microphone in hand looking very grim. He was standing underneath an umbrella as the rain poured down on him mercilessly, two cars in the background looking completely mangled together.

"-both drivers have been seriously injured, no word on exactly how the accident occurred but experts are under the impression that one of the vehicles hydroplaned-"

Sebastian sat up as the camera zoomed into the two destroyed cars. The red one looked familiar for some reason. His stomach tightened.

"-Hummel. The other victim has been identified as-"

"KURT!" Sebastian screamed.


"Daddy where's Mommy? Please tell me she's okay." Kurt begged as Kurt's daddy explained in hushed, hurried tones to Blaine's mommy about why he was dropping them off at Blaine's house.

"I'm so sorry," Blaine's mommy said, covering her mouth and looking frightened. "Of course Kurt can spend the night if he needs to. Call me if you need anything at all. I'll… I'll be praying for you."

"Daddy please, tell me what's going on, don't go, I need to know if Mommy is alright. She doesn't have to bring me orange soda I don't want it anymore," Kurt was crying now, holding his daddy's leg tightly. "I don't want orange soda anymore."

Blaine felt his heart break in his chest. He didn't know what was happening and he hated seeing everyone looking so sad and afraid. He wanted to do something, anything to make it all go away.

Blaine felt smaller than he had ever felt in his entire life.

"I have to go, Kurt. I don't… I can't promise you anything. I'll be back soon okay? Stay here and be good. Miss Anderson will take good care of you."

Kurt swallowed and nodded with a shaky sob, backing inside. He watched as his daddy went back outside into the pouring rain and drove away.

"Blaine, Kurt why don't you go and sit in the living room okay? I have to make a few calls. It'll only take me a few minutes. Shout if you need me."

Kurt sat on the couch and hugged a pillow to his chest. He rocked back and forth and Blaine could tell he was really fighting to stop crying. He hoped he would stop soon. Seeing Kurt cry made Blaine want to cry too. He thought Kurt should always be happy.

"I don't know what to do, Blaine," Kurt said in a small voice, looking at Blaine in a way that made Blaine want to hold him until he felt better. "What if my mommy…" He trailed off and put his face in his hands, his small body shaking with sobs.

Blaine did the only thing he could think of and wrapped his arms around him, feeling his own eyes fill with tears.

If he held Kurt tight enough, maybe he could help his best friend not fall apart.


Sebastian had never been to a funeral before. His clothes felt too warm and itchy and the church felt so stuffy. He tried to pay attention to what the preacher person was saying but all he could focus on was Kurt. Kurt sat beside his dad with his eyes downcast, his face dry but his eyes red. Sebastian had never seen him look so small.

He turned to watch Blaine who looked like he was paying close attention to what the preacher person was saying even though he kept shuffling his feet back and forth. Blaine caught Sebastian staring and pressed his lips together in a sad smile, wiggling his fingers a little bit.

Sebastian sighed. He felt like after this, he'd be nicer to Blaine. Kurt loved him. He was his other best friend, after all. He stared at the casket that held Kurt's mommy and felt his chest ache. He never wanted to cause Kurt any pain ever again. Kurt didn't have that many people to love in his life, right now. The least he could do was show respect for them.

After the preacher person stopped talking they went outside and had the burial. Sebastian was itching to go home but he knew he needed to wait just a little longer so he did.

A lot of people, including Blaine and his family, went up to Kurt and his dad to hug them and say whispered words. Kurt barely looked up except to give Blaine a quick but tight hug.

When Sebastian finally had a chance to see Kurt, Kurt smiled. It was a very tiny smile and his eyes still looked very sad but it was a smile all the same. Sebastian walked forward to hug him.

"I missed you a lot," Kurt said into his shoulder, hugging him back. Sebastian swallowed. For some reason, the way Kurt said it made him want to cry. Like he was trying to comfort Sebastian even though he needed all the comforting in the world.

"Me too," Sebastian said pulling away. And he meant it. He had missed Kurt so much the past few days he felt like it actually hurt him in some way.

"Daddy, can me and Seb give my present to Mommy now?" Kurt asked quietly, looking up at his dad. He looked down from where he was talking to Sebastian's mom and nodded.

Kurt walked over to his mommy's grave, Sebastian following silently.

Sebastian watched as Kurt knelt down, his mouth in a tight line. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the present.

It was a completed Rubix cube.

"You were right, Mommy. I didn't know what to do with you gone so I did the only thing I thought might impress you. I worked really hard on my Rubix cube and I beat it. I haven't got much sleep but it was worth it. I know it took me a long time to do but you said if I worked hard enough I could do it and you were right. You were always right."

Sebastian bit his lip. Kurt finally did finish it after all. He really wished his mommy was there to see it.

"I love you and I miss you, Mommy," he whispered. He turned around and looked at Sebastian with an expression Sebastian couldn't quite figure out. He reached out a hand. Sebastian took it.

"I'm really glad you're here with me for this Seb. At least I still have Daddy and my two best friends, right?"

Sebastian nodded thinking of his decision to be nicer to Blaine after this.

"Right."